Bulletin Number Two 1987

Q. You didn't say whether these ingredients are born or bred. A. I think it must be a combination o f both. If you flunked in every one of your physics exam­ inations, you certainly cannot be a great physi­ cist. On the other hand, if you get 100 in every one of your examinations, you most likely won't be a great physicist either. Q. You talked about self-confidence and intuition, how do these develop? Most young people when they start out in their career, do not have these qualities. A. It is hard to tell, you gradually develop these very slowly. Q. What part does training play in your success? A. I always believe training is not very important. At least for me, I didn't go to school until I was twelve years old and until I went to Taiwan, because I grew up during the war time in China. Then I went to the University of Michigan, which is not the best school in the world, only a good school. I gradually developed my interest when I began research on my own. I have never believed that a good grammar school education is very important. Indeed when I was in Taiwan, I certainly was not the best student. The best student means you have to be good in every subject. I was reasonably good in a few subjects, mathematics, chemistry, physics and history. Q. But we could take the word training in a broader sense. Certainly somewhere along the line you got the message that high energy physics is extremely important. Somebody in the underdeveloped parts o f the world might be stuck in a school where he gets the idea, fo r example ， that measuring the viscosity o f fluids is good physics research. So by training i f we mean exposure as well, would you still say that training is unimportant? A. While I was an undergraduate at the University of Michigan I used to do measurements of shockwaves, not so far from viscosity, and theoretical physics. Gradually I lost interest, but I was not afraid to change; the moment I lost interest I left. I began studying engineering, but then I realized that I could not understand drawings and I left. I would still say that what is more important is the ability to choose a topic. I f you choose something you don't like, and i f you are sure of this, you'd better not stay there. The longer you stay, the more time you waste. Q. Just now you said that in the first twelve years you didn't receive any formal education, but did you receive any informal training, as in Chinese culture? A. Not really, because life was rather difficult during World War I I . Both my parents were university professors, and they always had many interesting visitors coming to our house. From their conversation, I heard the names of Faraday, Dirac and Newton ever since I was very young, but I only knew their names and what they did, a little bit. Q. Do your parents have much influence on your career? A. I would say they have a good influence on me by letting me alone. In most Chinese families the parents push their children to do this and that. It is a little bit unfortunate that most of the traditional Chinese families not only push the children, but even choose a topic for them. Q. In addition to being a scientist ， you are playing the role o f manager in your research group. How do you bring so many scientists o f high- calibre together to work in your laboratory? A. Let me tell you what I do. I choose a topic and design experiments. I sort of guide these people in the physics sense. I do not do management. I make my decisions based on physics. Very seldom do two physicists agree, let alone 400 physicists. What I normally do is I figure out how this thing should be done, how I want it to be done, and discuss it with my collaborators and then I make a decision. Q. Do you know how these scientists feel about working in such a large team? A. This is a very complicated experiment and although there are 400 scientists working to­ gether, you often find there is not enough people. So everybody is quite busy and most of them believe that this is a very good experi­ ment. You can only drive people forward because they are interested and have a common 20 INTERVIEW